Marie Claire’s EIC Brags About New Plus Size Columnist

On Thursday night, Marie Claire’s editor in chief Joanna Coles taught a class for the Learning Annex. She dished the dirt with designer Narciso Rodriguez, confirmed that the magazine was indeed partaking in another reality television show, and gushed about a new edition to Marie Claire’s masthead.

“We have a new fashionista at the magazine, a columnist called Ashley Falcon, who’s five-foot-two and 220 pounds and she’s a size 20. We’ve had such a response to her. It’s been really gratifying. Very real,” she told The Cut. “We try very hard in Marie Claire to cast models who aren’t too thin. It’s sometimes difficult — occasionally we book people at the last minute and you can’t always get what you want. But we’re pretty good about it.”

Real women on the pages of magazines? We’re all for promoting a healthy image in the fashion industry. But disclosing the weight of editors? Well, that seems like a strange piece of information to broadcast. It’s understandable that readers itching for a more realistic view of fashion would want a someone who looks like them, shops like them, and talks like them to, well, be writing for them. And not to put Ms. Falcon down — we read her latest post on the magazine’s website and enjoyed it quite a bit — but did the magazine simply put an ad out for a plus size editor, or did one just happen upon them? Is Ms. Falcon’s role at the magazine to serve as the token plus-size girl, an affirmative action of sorts? Or is she an editor that just happens to be plus-sized?

The fact is that Falcon is a lot more than plus-sized. She’s a great writer with an important story. Plus, she has an impeccable eye for putting outfits together — regardless of size. Before she gets labelled plus-sized, Falcon should be labelled a fashion editor.

It’s difficult to separate the gimmick from the geniune. Points for joining the fight against the 90 pound model, Marie Claire. But giving away the weight of your new editor as a way to appear part of club? Well, we think it’s just a bit odd.